In February 2022, bookings were up by 30% compared to February 2020; pre-COVID. The Russian invasion of Ukraine on 23 February had an immediate effect on the European travel industry, including on Sunweb Group and our partners.
Many of you are asking us how the different markets are responding to this crisis. In the early days of the war, we saw a small decline in bookings across our markets. Within a week, however, bookings were back to previous levels. We did see a shift in demand to certain destinations, such as Portugal, Spain and Egypt. So, while the frightening situation in Ukraine keeps us all occupied on a daily basis, we do see that our customers still have the confidence to book in advance.
We'd like to share with you how our early bird campaign has contributed to this. Since 15 December 2021, Sunweb's early booking campaign has been live in Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands. The campaign has come to life via a variety of channels. There have been radio and TV commercials, targeted social media and YouTube campaigns, we are sponsoring X Factor Denmark, and there have been inserts in several newspapers in the past 5 weeks.
The resurrection of QR codes
Speaking of these inserts. This year, we are doing our printed campaign a little differently! We made the customer even more central to our approach and focused on a seamless customer journey. Where QR codes seemed to be obsolete just a few years ago, they have resurged partially due to COVID. Now, the customer is used to picking up their phone and scanning a QR code. We have responded to this development by connecting our offline and online channels.
More traffic and conversion
Our printed media inserts consisted of several parts: accommodations and inspirational content around several themes – family breaks, Spain's hidden gems, relax & recharge, etc. They came with a corresponding QR code, which has yielded excellent results. Accommodations came out on top, as the codes didn't just lead to additional traffic, it led to actual conversion. This means we were able to tempt holiday makers towards our accommodations, directly resulting in bookings.
Seamless customer journey
The conclusion we have drawn from this, is that we've been able to make the customer journey even more seamless. The customer landed directly on the relevant accommodation page, simplifying their journey. This is partly why bookings are up 30% compared to the same period in 2020. In short: a great success; bringing Sunweb Group one step closer to our ambition of becoming the leading digital holiday expert.
